Game 43 Preview: Milwaukee Bucks (17-24) at Nets (14-28)

Uh oh, how on Earth are the Nets going to be able to score points without D-Will in the line-up? Hey, I know, let's call someone up from the D-League

UPDATE: D-Will will not play tonight due to his sore calf. He is day-to-day.


The Nets look to bounce back from a winning streak-breaking loss on Saturday night at the hands of the Houston Rockets at the Prudential Center. Each team was without their starting point guard due to injury--Kyle Lowry (bacterial infection) for Houston and D-Will (calf) for the Nets--but that didn't stop the Rockets from shooting 56 percent from the field and scoring 112 points. New Jersey will have to overcome their season-long home struggles and snap their 9-game losing streak to the Bucks in order to get their 15th win of the season.

Background on Milwaukee

Milwaukee, like the Nets, has suffered a bunch of tough injuries this season but the most notable one is with their franchise center and former #1 overall pick Andrew Bogut. Bogut hasn't played since January 27th with an ankle fracture and has had to fight through constant injuries in his relatively short career. The Bucks have lost their fair share of games since their center's injury but have been on an uptick of late, winning their last two games--against the Raptors and Knicks--and three of their last four. One of the main reasons for Milwaukee's improved play of late is Ersan Ilyasova, the Turkish power forward who has been on a scoring, and rebounding, rampage since his team's Feb. 19th win in Newark over the Nets. Since his 29-point and 25-rebound performance in that game, Ilyasova is averaging 19.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per contest and doesn't seem to be looking back.

Previous Game
Last night in Toronto, the Bucks won their 6h-straight game against the Raptors by the score of 105-99. Ilyasova scored 31 points along with 12 rebounds to help Milwaukee climb out of an early 13-point deficit to take, and hold on to, the lead later in the game for the win. The ageless Drew Gooden contributed with 21 points and veteran swingman Mike Dunleavy Jr scored 19 off the bench. 


On Saturday night in Newark, the Nets had about a close to a moral victory as possible in a 112-106 loss to the visiting Houston Rockets. Surprisingly, the Nets offense, sans D-Will, was was incredibly efficient and scored points by the bucketful with a 53 percent shooting effort from the field. However, they got down big early and couldn't stop the Rockets either, whose offense was also seamless even though it too was missing its key component in Lowry. Once again, the Nets held the lead late in the game but couldn't seem to hold it, as their final possessions of the game consisted of contested jump-shots that weren't anywhere going into the basket. Good news was that Gerald Green went crazy for a game-high 26 points while Marshon Brooks showed off his unbelievable shot-creating abilities en route to a 23-point performance.

Probable Lineups 

MIL- Jennings (PG), Delfino (SG), To. Harris (SF), Gooden (PF), Ilyasova (C)

NJN- D.Williams (PG), Brooks (SG), Stevenson (SF), Humphries (PF), She. Williams (C)

Three Keys to a Nets Victory

1. Get Ilyasova off the glass- As highlighted above, the Turkish sensation has been nearly unstoppable in rebounding and scoring since his break-out game vs the Nets. This will pose a huge problem for New Jersey, who has had extreme difficulties in rebounding this season. However, if they can keep Ilyasova's rebounding numbers to a minimum, the Nets will have a great chance of keeping the shorthanded Bucks off the boards in total. Kris Humphries needs to redeem himself from his poor effort on Saturday in which he couldn't control the glass at all.

2. Contain Jennings- This one is pretty simple. The Bucks' young point guard is very inconsistent but when he is on his game, he is nearly unstoppable. In just his last five games, Jennings has three 25+ point games and has posted at least five assists in each of those contests. He takes a lot of shots and is probably a ball-hog but it's well-deserved; this guy can score, especially from the perimeter where the Nets have extreme defensive issues.

3. Get Marshon the ball on the post- Without Deron in the line-up, the Nets are going to need to get scoring production from other sources and Brooks is one of the more important of those sources. Against Houston, the rookie shooting guard went nuts from the field, hitting contested fadeaway jumpers en route to his 11-16 shooting effort. When Brooks got the ball in a post-up situation on Saturday, no defender could stop him and it would be great for the Nets if that continued tonight.

Prediction

It's not yet known if Deron will play tonight (calf) but even if he doesn't, I think the Nets will be able to ride the momentum from their near-win on Saturday to a win tonight. 105-97 Nets.